Psalms 104:29
in Psalms 104When You hide Your face, they are terrified; when You take away their breath, they die and return to dust.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled; Thou takest away their breath, they die, And return to their dust.
KJV
Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.
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This verse in Psalms 104
Commentary
14 notes on this verseSo when the Spirit was moving on the water, the creation was without grace; but after this world being created underwent the operation of the Spirit, it gained all the beauty of that grace wherewith the world is illuminated. And that the grace of the universe cannot abide without the Holy Spirit the prophet declared when he said, "You will take away your Spirit, and they will fail and be turned again into their dust. Send forth your Spirit, and they shall be made, and you will renew all the face of the earth."
This site's exposition
All creatures look to You
on Psalms 104:27-30
Everything in the psalm hangs on one hand. When it opens they eat; when the face turns away they are terrified; when the breath is taken they return to dust. The Spirit sent at verse 30 is the Spirit of Genesis 1:2, and He renews the face of the earth.
This site's exposition
they die and return to dust
Job 34:14 to 15 says the same of all flesh, that if God withdrew His breath, man would return to dust. Genesis 3:19 first spoke the sentence. Breath here is ruach, the word translated Spirit in verse 30.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
"When thou openest Thy hand, they shall all be filled with good." What is it, O Lord, that Thou openest Thy hand? Christ is Thy hand. "To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" To whom it is revealed, unto him it is opened: for revelation is opening. "When Thou openest Thy hand, they shall all be filled with good." When Thou revealest Thy Christ, "they shall all be filled with good." But they have not good from themselves; this is oftentimes proved unto them. "When Thou hidest Thy face, they are troubled." Many filled with good have attributed to themselves what they had, and have wished to boast as in their own righteousnesses, and have said to themselves, I am righteous; I am great: and have become self-complacent. Unto these the Apostle speaketh: "What hast thou, that thou didst not receive?" But God, wishing to prove unto man that whatever he hath he hath from Him, so that with good he may gain humility also, sometimes troubleth him; He turneth away His face from him, and he falleth into temptation; and He showeth him that his righteousness, and his walking aright, was only under His government. ...
She, however, replied, First, I think, we must briefly run over the scattered proclamations of this doctrine in Holy Scripture; they shall give the finishing touch to our discourse. Observe, then, that I can hear David, in the midst of his praises in the Divine Songs, saying at the end of the hymnody of the hundred and third (104th) Psalm, where he has taken for his theme God's administration of the world, "Thou shalt take away their breath, and they shall die, and return to their dust: Thou shalt send forth Thy Spirit, and they shall be created: and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth." He says that a power of the Spirit which works in all vivifies the beings into whom it enters, and deprives those whom He abandons of their life. Seeing, then, that the dying is declared to occur at the Spirit's departure, and the renewal of these dead ones at His appearance, and seeing moreover that in the order of the statement the death of those who are to be thus renewed comes first, we hold that in these words that mystery of the Resurrection is proclaimed to the Church, and that David in the spirit of prophecy expressed this very gift which you are asking about.
You will take away their spirit, and they shall fail. He signifies the consummation of the world, when at the command of the Lord all things are destroyed, as it is written: "Earth you are, and into the earth you shall go."
The Medieval Church1 voice
And again to Moses: "I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." God "is not the God of the dead," of those who have died and will never be again. Rather, he is the God of the living, whose souls live in his hand and whose bodies will by the resurrection live again. And David, the ancestor of God, says to God, "You shall take away their breath, and they shall fail and shall return to their dust." See how it is a question of their bodies. Then he adds, "You shall send forth your spirit, and they shall be created; and you shall renew the face of the earth."
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled,.... God may be said to hide his face from the creatures when he withholds their food from them, when there is a scarcity of provisions, a famine in the land; when there is no pasture for them to feed on, nor brooks of water to drink of; then are they troubled or perplexed, as in Joe 1:18 and know not what to do, nor where to go for help, but faint, and sink, and die.
6 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Every creature has as necessary a dependence upon God's favours as every saint is sensible he has and therefore says with David ( Ps. xxx. 7 ), Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled. God's displeasure against this lower world for the sin of man is the cause of all the vanity and burden which the whole creation groans under.
The Nineteenth Century5 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
The entire dependence of this immense family on God is set forth. With Him, to kill or make alive is equally easy. To hide His face is to withdraw favor (Ps 13:1).
Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled. So dependent are all living things upon God's smile, that a frown fills them with terror, as though convulsed with anguish. This is so in the natural world, and certainly not less so in the spiritual: saints when the Lord hides his face are in terrible perplexity. Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. The breath appears to be a trifling matter, and the air an impalpable substance of but small importance, yet, once withdrawn, the body loses all vitality, and crumbles back to the earth from which it was originally taken. All animals come under this law, and even the dwellers in the sea are not exempt from it. Thus dependent is all nature upon the will of the Eternal. Note here that death is caused by the act of God, "thou takest away their breath"; we are immortal till he bids us die, and so are even the little sparrows, who fall not to the ground without our Father.
Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled. So dependent are all living things upon God's smile, that a frown fills them with terror, as though convulsed with anguish. This is so in the natural world, and certainly not less so in the spiritual: saints when the Lord hides his face are in terrible perplexity. Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.
Thou hidest thy face - If thou bring dearth or famine on the land, contagion in the air, or any destruction on the provision made by the waters, then beasts, fowl, and fish die, and are dissolved.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Thou hidest thy face - As if God turned away from them; as if he was displeased with them; as if he withdrew from them the tokens of his friendship and favor. They are troubled - They are confounded; they are overwhelmed with terror and amazement. The word “troubled” by no means conveys the sense of the original word - בהל bâhal - which means properly to tremble; to be in trepidation; to be filled with terror; to be amazed; to be confounded. It is that kind of consternation which one has when all support and protection are withdrawn, and when inevitable ruin stares one in the face. So when God turns away, all their support is gone; all their resources “fail, and they must die.” They are represented as conscious of this; or, this is what would occur if they were conscious. Thou takest away their breath - Withdrawing that which thou gavest to them. They die, and return to their dust - Life ends when thou dost leave them, and they return again to earth. So it is also with man. When God withdraws from him, nothing remains for him “but to die.”
The words behind it
9 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| תַּסְתִּ֥יר | tastir | you hide | H5641 → | 80 times |
| פָּנֶיךָ֮ | paneikha | face your | H6440 → | 2123 times |
| יִֽבָּהֵ֫ל֥וּן | yibahelun | they are terrified ! | H926 → | 39 times |
| תֹּסֵ֣ף | tosef | you withdraw | H622 → | 200 times |
| ר֭וּחָם | ruchom | breath their | H7307 → | 378 times |
| יִגְוָע֑וּן | yigvaun | they die ! | H1478 → | |
| וְֽאֶל־ | veel- | and to | H413 → | 5510 times |
| עֲפָרָ֥ם | ʾafaram | dust their | H6083 → | 110 times |
| יְשׁוּבֽוּן׃ | yeshuvun | they return ! | H7725 → | 1056 times |
תַּסְתִּ֥ירyou hide
tastirH5641 →80 times
פָּנֶיךָ֮face your
paneikhaH6440 →2123 times
יִֽבָּהֵ֫ל֥וּןthey are terrified !
yibahelunH926 →39 times
תֹּסֵ֣ףyou withdraw
tosefH622 →200 times
ר֭וּחָםbreath their
ruchomH7307 →378 times
יִגְוָע֑וּןthey die !
yigvaunH1478 →
וְֽאֶל־and to
veel-H413 →5510 times
עֲפָרָ֥םdust their
ʾafaramH6083 →110 times
יְשׁוּבֽוּן׃they return !
yeshuvunH7725 →1056 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Genesis 3:19By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground—because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
it leads to
- Ecclesiastes 12:7
before the dust returns to the ground from which it came and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Genesis 2:7
Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- Job 34:15
all flesh would perish together and mankind would return to the dust.
- Ecclesiastes 12:7
Through
Ecclesiastes 12:7before the dust returns to the ground from which it came and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
it leads to
- Genesis 3:19
By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground—because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Daniel 12:2
And many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, but others to shame and everlasting contempt.
- Ecclesiastes 3:20–21
All go to one place; all come from dust, and all return to dust.
- Psalms 146:4
When his spirit departs, he returns to the ground; on that very day his plans perish.
- Job 34:14–15
If He were to set His heart to it and withdraw His Spirit and breath,
- Genesis 3:19
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Psalms
This page draws on 13 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ambrose of Milan, On the Holy Spirit 2.5.33; Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 104; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 5; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms; Gregory of Nyssa, ON THE SOUL AND THE RESURRECTION 10; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Homily 30, on Psalm 103; John Damascene, ORTHODOX FAITH 4:27; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.